Civil society organisations must also work to expose the UAE’s whitewashing of its human rights record and to pressure companies and governments to free HRDs and take action to protect their rights.

It is also essential that CSOs support UAE HRDs and take the opportunity of the Expo 2020 to bring the UAE’s human rights record into the global agenda.

International civil society groups should continue to demand that the UAE authorities release all HRDs and activists, stop the ongoing torture in detention centres, end the systematic persecution of HRDs in exile, and put an end to the kafala system.